[geeks] crash tests

[Lionel Peterson]

On May 13, 2009, at 9:48 AM, Sridhar Ayengar <ploopster at gmail.com>  
wrote:

> Phil Stracchino wrote:
>> The REALLY stupid thing I hate about Detroit is the damned option
>> matrix.  To cite just one example, it was UTTERLY BARKING INSANE  
>> that on
>> a 1991 Z28 with a 5.7L V8, you could *not* have both the heavy-duty  
>> rear
>> axle *and* the four-wheel disc brakes on the same car.  On a  
>> supposedly
>> high performance car, you have to choose EITHER four-wheel discs OR  
>> the
>> heavy-duty rear axle?  And you couldn't have a stickshift with your  
>> 5.7L
>> V8, either.  You could have a six-speed manual with your 5.7L V8 in a
>> Corvette, but if you wanted that 5.7L in a Camaro, you had to  
>> settle for
>> a four-speed automatic.  If you wanted the five-speed manual in the
>> Camaro (you couldn't get the six-speed at all), you had to settle  
>> for a
>> 5.0L.  Not because the hardware wasn't available.  Just because God
>> Forbid A Mere Camaro Should Ever Even APPEAR To Challenge The  
>> Corvette's
>> Divine Shininess.  (In fact, if you got the 5.0L, you HAD to have the
>> five-speed manual.  You could not order the car with the 5.0L V8  
>> and a
>> four-speed automatic if the only thing you really wanted was to get a
>> firmer ride and better roadholding than the base Camaro model.)
>
> Detroit isn't the only one guilty of this.  Many other manufacturers  
> have this problem.  Porsche is particularly notorious for this.

Car Manufaturers need to document the snot out of each platform they  
offer, and I suspect the combinations you mention may change a car's  
characteristcs enough to warrant a new ass-load of documents to be  
filed...

I'm positive that the transmission is a big enough change, not sure  
about brakes and axels, but it may be possible. In the past, some  
foreign car makers only imported the automatic transmission version of  
a car the first year, though the stick was available in Europe... I'm  
thinking this was the gas with the BMW Z4, and maybe the Mazda Miata,  
but I could be way off...

Lionel